The Yawning Slippers
by Kuroda Chiaki
Summary: A nightly encounter between two not so usual Slytherin students.


The dungeon corridors were abnormally silent that evening and not even Bloody Baron dared to disturb the peace in the underground levels of Hogwarts.

Archibald sat behind the teacher's desk, in the middle of huge piles of books, in the dimly lit potions classroom. The pale boy had taken off his green striped tie and leaned on the table while staring at the wooden stick suspended in the air, spinning around it's own axis. After careful consideration he grabbed a chisel out of a little leathery box and started carving. He tried to utilise everything his father had taught him and it seemed to word. After achieveing the desired shape he smoothened it with rough pieces of animal skin.

The young man waved his hand over the spinning stick after sanding it smooth- It fell onto the desk.

The black piece of wood had taken the shape of a basic wand. Archibald placed the tip of the coreless wand on top of a few strands of black hair and focused hard while grasping the handle firmly.

The wand started emitting a warm light and absorbed the long strands of shiny black hair. The boy looked up and stared at the dark classroom- It must've been a few hours after midnight by now and he had to attend the transfiguration class at 8 o'clock. He ran his hand through his light-brown hair and sighed.

The corridors started echoing with faint footsteps that seemed to be approaching the potions classroom. Archibald waved his hand over the table and put out the numerous candles he had lit. Complete darkness filled the spacious room.

A luminous light creeped in the room from beneath the large door. After a second the heavy wooden door opened with an ominous creak. A slender figure sneaked into the classroom and closed the door. Archibald realised that it's just another student and lit the candles once again. The sneaky figure seemed surprised. It was a white-haired girl, who seemed overall rather pale. She was wearing a very loose green hoodie, a little cloth satchel and white slippers that were shaped like sheep (one of them yawned widely for second).

"Hello..." Said Archibald while staring at the girl with his silvery eyes.

"Hi... Nox." The light shining from the girl's wand went out. "Am I in trouble?"

"Umm... I don't think so. I am not going to rat you out if that's what you mean... I'm Archibald."

The girl seemed relieved and stormed to the cupboards filled with different ingredients. She opened some doors, took some vials and jars and put them in her bag.

The boy threw his feet on the desk and placed his arms behind his head.

"Are you looking for something? I mean... I know this classroom pretty well."

The white haired young lady flashed her red eyes at the young man.

"Ashwinder eggs. I need Ashwinder eggs."

Archibald had never been much of a bookworm, but he wasn't completely immune to book-knowledge.

"A love potion?" He asked, while flipping through the pages of a potions book. "The one with the rose thorns and moonstone, right?"

The girl blushed slightly. "I am making it to test my skills. Who do you think you are to accuse me of such vulgar actions?"

"I didn't accuse you of anything... " The boy had opened one of the drawers and taken out a tiny jar. " I wonder if I could trade these Ashwinder eggs for a name."

The girl walked up to the teacher's desk and grabbed the jar of eggs. She was about to turn around and leave when it occurred to her that there was at least 4 wands in the boy's leather covered toolbox and one laying on the table.

"Are all of these yours?" She managed a fake smile, that looked almost perfectly genuine.

Archibald closed the box. "Yes... It's just a thing I do. It's nothing really."

The girl sat onto one of the chairs and crossed her legs.

"Do tell." She smiled again.

The young man picked up his tie and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Well, you must remember the time you got your wand, right. I'd say 11" vine wood, maybe?"

She was slightly amused, but didn't let it show. "Correct."

The boy continued: " I was never chosen by one. My father looked all over the world- Nothing seemed to work, so now I use wands that haven't accepted me and once they break I'm going to make new ones."

The white-haired girl was interested now. "I should've realised. You're Garrick Ollivander's son." She looked at the black wand that the boy was rolling between his fingers. "It's quite nice."

Archibald looked into her eyes. "Ebony, 12" Thestral hair core. I sometimes paint them... but they break anyway. Why bother?"

The young lady was certainly amused.

Wands had never really interested her as she wasn't very skilled with them, but there was something about the way the young man talked that made her want to listen closely. There weren't many things that amused her- she liked to think that nothing was a real challenge to her as she had always been the top of the class in every subject, except the ones that required wand mastery.

Suddenly the early transfiguration class popped into her mind and she jumped out of the chair and ran to the door. The quirky white-haired girl looked back at Archibald with a slight grin.

"Alice... Lumos" She said right before stepping into the dark dungeon corridor and disappearing into the shadows.


End file.
